Milford Sound, New Zealand

October 30

We woke up early and headed out on Milford Road for the 2 hour drive to Milford Sound.  We arranged to take a boat ride through the sound.

To get to Milford Sound, we had to drive through the Homer tunnel which was completed in 1954.  The tunnel pierces the Darran mountain range, and you can still see the marks from the explosives inside the tunnel.

We finally arrive at Milford Sound.  It's a little cloudy but no rain.  The sand flies are out in full force though.

Here is the boat that we went on for our nature cruise, the Milford Mariner.

We saw tons of waterfalls during the boat ride.  This one is the tallest permanent waterfall in the sound.

Kayakers paddling along

The tour boat in front of us give you an idea of the scale of the mountains on either side of the waterway in the sound.  And these mountains seem to come straight up out of the water.

The captain of our ship brought the bow right up to this waterfall (similar to the tour boat in front of us, as seen in this picture).  You could feel the spray from the waterfall, we were so close.

Here we are under the waterfall.

We were motoring almost directly into the wind, but the captain still put the sails up (for appeal rather than purpose is what he told us).

Here's Gene and the Tasman Sea in the background.

Penguins on the rocks

Here's the view looking back into the sound from the Tasman Sea

We passed these seals lounging on the rocks.

This seal on the far right looks like he's about to slide off the rock.

More beautiful waterfalls.  We got really close to this one also.

After we returned from our boat trip, we drove back towards Te Anau, and stopped for a hike along the way.  This was the view of the river during our hike.  The water is so clear!

Views from the road as we drive back into Te Anau